Blog Assignment #10

"Education, in a way, dislocates many people from their natural talents." -Sir Ken Robinson

Sir Ken Robinson provides a comedic relief in his video Bring on the learning revolution! For as long as I can remember, people have talked about an education reformation and how the existing system needs to be changed. In the video however, Robinson says we need a revolution because fixing a flawed system will not improve education. We need an entirely new system! One of his examples was how someone said college starts in kindergarten. Robinson completely refutes this point. Kindergarten starts kindergarten. There is such a pressure on students today to go to college, and not everyone is made for that. There are also jobs that we need in society in which one does not need a college education. Another one of Robinson's stories was of a young guy. Robinson asked the man what he did for a living, and he replied that he was a fireman. The fireman explained that this was what he always wanted to be so school was difficult for him. As soon as he finished school, he applied to fire school and got in, and started living his dream. This story is wonderful because firemen are such an integral part of our society. Without them, life as we know it would literally go up in FLAMES. The last point of Robinson's I will go over in this post is that teachers need to start personalizing what they are teaching to fit their students. You cannot just take the same lesson plan and teach it the exact same way for 25 years and expect it to have the same effect each time. This is something I am going to hold close to me as a future teacher. You have to adapt the information you teach each year to your new students. You may have to present it in a new way, whatever will make the information resonate with your students. All in all, Sir Ken Robinson was a delight to listen to and he shared some of his wisdom and insight into the education system. It just makes me more excited to start my future career!

Thanks for reading!

Jennah Rose

Project #12, Part A

Here is my SMARTboard tutorial.

Blog Assignment #9

"Technology is not going away, it is here to stay." - Mrs. Cassidy

Mrs. Cassidy is a 1st grade teacher in Canada. In Dr. Strange's Interview Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 Mrs. Cassidy explains how she incorporates technology into the classroom. She said she started getting into technology about ten years ago and started a blog about five years ago. When asked what was the best way to start using technology, she said that one should start with something you are interested in. If you like to write, you should start blogging. If you like photography, you should check out Flickr. Her 1st grade class has personal blogs and they blog about once or twice a week. This blog allows her students to have an online portfolio of their work. While it mostly hones in on their writing skills, their parents and other family members are still able to see what they are accomplishing in class. The blog also allows her students to have an audience. It is set up with page reads and a cluster map to keep up with visitors. Mrs. Cassidy teaches her students how to be safe on the internet since their blogs have so many visitors. For example, her students do not use their last name on their blog. She also shows them how to focus only on the places that they are supposed to go and not the many flashing and colorful links that surround that particular educational tool. Skype is another tool used in this 1st grade classroom. The students are able to Skype with their online "buddies" and even experts on whatever they are studying! When asked about how students respond to technology, Mrs. Cassidy explained how technology was part of their world. They do not know anything different so using different technology is normal for them. And about those people that think technology does not have a place in the classroom she said, "You are handicapping your students, and yourself in fact, by not taking advantage of those tools." As was explained in the videos, teachers need to keep up with the new and upcoming technology. Especially since there is such a shift in the way we collect information now and how it is more of a collaborative effort than a single effort. Teacher and student use of Personal Learning Networks can help with the keeping up of technology. All in all, Mrs. Cassidy's interviews were extremely helpful in ways to bring technology into the classroom.

When I one day have a classroom (which I am hoping is sooner rather than later), I will definitely have class blogs. I think it is a great idea for students to have an online portfolio of their work along with an audience for it. With this, I believe students will put more effort and take more pride in their work. The only thing I would be afraid of is student participation. I do no think you have to worry as much about participation with younger students as you do older students, but it is still a problem that could arise. If I had a student not participate, I think I would take them aside and talk to them about why they are not doing their work, and then keep an extra eye on them to make sure their future work is completed. These videos make me really excited to have a classroom and try out my new ideas!

Thanks for reading!

Jennah Rose

Project #14, Project Based Learning Plan #2

Here is my second Project Based Learning Plan.

Blog Assignment #8

YouTube is a video gallery that has been around for awhile. You can find funny, instructional, and even educational videos in its archives. (Note: Just like text sources, you should probably make sure the author is a legitimate source for your information.) This is the first tool I go to for intstructional information, and we have watched many YouTube videos in this class. In the writing prompt for this blog post, Dr. Strange gave us a few links to Flipping the Classroom videos. The one I found most useful was Katie Gimbar's "Why I Flipped My Classroom". As discussed in one of my previous posts Blog Assignment #2, I was wary about "Flipping the Classroom". I was not sure it would work or if the students would participate. After watching Gimbar's video and her many FAQ videos, I have changed my opinion. I really do think it is a great idea. She said that since flipping her classroom, she is now teaching in the middle of the room and has time to be with her students one on one. 90% of her class time is now devoted to application while only 10% is devoted to delivery and review of content. With this, all of her students are engaged and challenged- no matter their intellectual level. As more schools are moving towards this method, I am glad her videos answered all of my questions and gave me the confidence that this method works.

The Learning Tool I want to discuss is the Teaching Channel. Its statement is "Great Teaching. Inspiring Classrooms." It is basically like YouTube, but for teachers. I immediately signed up for it so I could receive a weekly newsletter about new videos, etc. When signing up, it asked my position. You could choose from Student Teacher, Teacher, and many other positions you would find in the education field. After you choose a position, you choose which subject areas and grade levels you teach and/ or are interested in. Their videos are categorized under subject area, grade level, and topic so it is very easy to find whatever you are looking for. It even has videos explaining Common Core and example lessons. Most of the videos I watched incorporated technology within the lessons as well. I could not be happier that I was exposed to this website. I know it will be very helpful to me, especially during my first year teaching.

You can find information about other learning and communicating tools for the 21st century classroom in some of my previous blog posts. iCurio and Discovery Ed are both explained in Blog Assignment #5. You should also check out Khan Academy which is a website with hundreds of instructional videos for math. I have used this website countless times myself, and found it to be very useful.

Thanks for reading!

Jennah Rose

Project #9 Video Book Conversation

Team Tokyo's Video Book Conversation, Topic #7 )

C4T #2

C4T #2, comment 1

Why I Deleted FourSquare, and You Should, Too! is my first post to comment on for C4T #2. It is written by an anonymous educator from Palm Beach County, Florida. This post is about why she deleted the popular application (or app) called "FourSquare." FourSquare allows the user to check-in to places and some places even offer special deals if you check in so many times. In this post, she talked about how FourSquare was the perfect avenue for potential stalkers. In December,the app took away the ability to privately post your check-ins. After seeing this, the educator checked other social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter for location settings. She urges readers in her blog to be careful what they post and to what audience- for their own personal safety. She also demonstrated how easy it was to get a complete stranger's information through social media. She made some very good points in her blog about always being aware about the information you share.

C4T #2, comment 2

Strengthening the Ties Withing the Blogging Community is my second post to comment on for C4T #2. It is some sort of chain type blog in which questions are asked to people who are tagged so people have an excuse to update their blog. She believes this will helpe strengthen the ties withing the blogging community because it helps bloggers get to know each other better. It also helped readers and followers get to know their bloggers better.

Blog Assignment #7

What Can We Learn About Teaching and Learning From Randy Pausch?

To be completely honest, I was very wary about this video when I saw it was over an hour long. I was afraid it would be very long and irrelevant to my life. However, as soon as Randy Pausch started talking, I realized that the video was going to be worth watching. An hour and sixteen minutes later, I could not be happier that I was given the chance to watch this video. Pausch was so inspirational to me and honestly taught me a lot about not only how to achieve your childhood dreams and help others achieve theirs, but how to live my life. With the tragedy that surrounds life today, it is refreshing to hear such positive things. I learned an infinite number things from Pausch, but I will only go over a few things that stuck out the most to me.
Fundamentals are the key to anything. If you do not understand the fundamentals, you will not be able to expand on ideas properly. The perfect example is in math. You have to learn 2+2=4 before you can fully understand why 2x2=4 as well. This is my mission as a teacher- to make sure my students understand the fundamentals so they can succeed when faced with more in-depth information.
A quote that really stood out to me was by Pausch's assistant football coach. "When you're screwing up and no body's saying anything to you anymore, that means they gave up." This is a heavy statement. I think teachers are so worried about hurting a child's feelings now that they will not tell the student when they are doing something wrong. This is robbery! Teachers that think like this are robbing kids of their education. For example, I was on color guard in high school. During practice, the instructor would make us do the same 8-count some ten to fifteen times because one person was out of sync with the rest of us. She refused to call out the one person who was wrong as to not hurt anyone's feelings. It was infuriating. How can someone know they are doing something wrong when no one tells them?! Of course, a teacher should never be rude to a student, but constructive criticism can help them succeed! A little enthusiasm with that constructive criticism can do wonders as well. To elaborate on this point, teachers especially should get their students to become self-reflective. Self-reflective people become self-respected.
Pausch was talking about the above things in football terminology. One of his childhood dreams was to play in the National Football League. He said he did not accomplish his goal, but he ultimately got more out of working towards it than he would have accomplishing it. He said, "Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted." This statement is incredibly correct. Students need to realize early on that they will not always get what they want, even if they work really hard for it. "Brick walls" will always be there. They are there to stop the people who do not want it bad enough and to see how badly you want it. While things might get hard, you should always have fun learning and accomplishing your goals. Another piece of advice was to never lose the child-like wonder.
In his Last Lecture, Randy Pausch stressed the importance of the "head fake", or indirect learning. When you have kids, you do not let them play football, baseball, basketball, or whatever other hobby or sport to learn that hobby or sport. You let them play to learn important skills such as teamwork, leadership, sportsmanship, perseverance, etc. It is so important for children to learn these skills at a young age, so they can carry it over in to their school and personal lives. It will ultimately allow them to live better lives.
A close friend of Pausch's is Jon Snoddy. His quote, "Wait long enough and people with surprise and impress you." I feel as though teachers need to keep this on their minds. As he pointed out in his video, teacher cannot just put the bar anywhere for students' work. Let them set the bar, and it will be higher than you could have ever imagined- especially if their work has an audience.
A few other pieces of advice from Randy Pausch was to help others, loyalty is a two-way street, be earnest, apologize, focus on other people, and tell the truth. This video is immeasurable in the amount of good words it has for someone wanting to lead a better life. I will, without a doubt, carry these words of wisdom with me in both my personal life and my future career as a teacher.

Thanks for reading!

Jennah Rose

Project #13, Project Based Learning Plan #1

Here is Team Tokyo's Project Based Learning Plan.

C4KSummary for February

My first C4K assignment was Brady from Mrs. Reuter's class. He was comparing two different comic websites: "Make Beliefs Comix" and "Toondoo". He thoroughly explained each website by listing both their positives and negatives. He then told his reader his favorite, which was "Toondoo". I think his blog post was very good!

My second C4K assignment was Coco. She is a 3rd grader in the Hong Kong International School. She is 8 years old and used to live in Singapore, but moved to Hong Kong. The post also contained a picture of her, but there was no other information provided.

My third C4K assignment was Zeshan. He is a high schooler from Austin, Texas, and he reviewed the book Of Mice and Men . He described the characters and then said he would probably get along with George better because he is more logical. In my comment, I asked him why is George more logical and whether or not he liked the book.

My final C4K assignment for February was Kylie B. She is a seventh grader from Missouri. Her most recent post was about a project her class had to do. They had two options to discuss the theme of the book. The first option was to pick five songs that had a similar theme to the book. The second option was to create a presentation that had five things with a similar theme to the book. Kylie said she chose to do the presentation. In my comment, I asked what book she read, and if she liked it. I also asked her what she thought about making presentations in a Google Doc.